Pomelo Community Charter School

Principal

Mrs. Masha Gardner

Message from the Principal

By now, I’m sure you have heard we were once again vandalized over this past week end. It is sad, distressing, disheartening, angering, frustrating, time-consuming, expensive, and definitely bad news. The District sent a crew who spent two days thoroughly cleaning two classrooms after both the Fire Department and School Police had been here investigating over the week end. The extensive damage to the YMCA bungalow was halted, in part, due to our own Brigitta Rubanowitz and the work of the Fire Department. Mr. Pinks came to make sure everything remained secure after working a full day at Hale Charter Academy and Coach Monica did the same thing on Sunday. The reality is our staff and neighbors care enough to try to keep watch and inform School Police and the LAPD. The vandals chose to destroy in areas hidden from view. We are currently looking into the cost of purchasing cameras to mount on the exteriors that will enable us to remotely view our entire campus. LAPD and School Police will be increasing their patrols. The entire West Hills neighborhood is being alerted to our problem and their help is being sought. We have asked our students and their families at Monday Morning Greeting to report to the Police, any individuals they see on school property when there is no school function. School Police also suggested that any deterrent we can provide to vandals ability to access a classroom is valuable. Therefore, if you can donate lengths of ½ inch pvc pipe and/or a willingness to cut it to size, we will place it inside our windows to make it more difficult for our slider windows to be opened. Please let me know if you are able to help and please keep you eyes open!

Perfect Attendance Beginning in January, perfect attendance will only be given with NO TARDIES!

Pomelo Partners

Dear Pomelo Families,

The impacts of the economic recession continue to affect each of us more every day. The headlines speak of severe deficits in federal, state, and municipal budgets. Los Angeles has most recently been featured in the news for its budget woes. LAUSD is under extreme stress to reduce costs and class sizes will increase again next year.

Our devoted teachers at Pomelo do a fantastic job educating our children, but each additional child in the classroom takes time away from the students for additional administrative work and grading. To help Pomelo teachers continue to provide maximum attention to our children, we need volunteers to assist teachers as part of a program called, Pomelo Partners. Here is how it works:

You must be able to commit to working at least 3 hours every week in a classroom other than your child’s. Every day you devote assisting a teacher as a Pomelo Partner, your child’s classroom will also benefit from someone assigned to his/her classroom. This simply extends the current volunteer program many of us already participate in.

Intrigued by this idea but need more information? Attend an Informational Meeting that will be held on April 20 at 8:15 in the Parent Center. Also, Pomelo Partners will be expected to attend a 1 hour training.

Our plan is to Pilot this program beginning April 26. If you are interested, please contact Shelly Bright at brightshelly@yahoo.com. Also, contact Shelly if you have additional questions or need an evening meeting.

If for some unlikely reason we can’t match all of your Pomelo Partner hours, you will be notified and can opt out of the additional hours.

Keep Collecting Box Tops For Education Please remember to keep clipping and sending in the Box Top For Education cut outs on groceries, ziplock, personal care items, and many more. Send then into your child's class. The class with the most at the end of the month receives a prize.

Teachers are now online Teacher Index All teachers now have websites, linked from the Faculty button. Visit them frequently to find out homework, announcements, and other class information. You may also be able to email the teachers from their websites. Email is an efficient way of contacting your child's teacher.

Thoughts For Thursday Thoughts for Thursday will now be going "Less Paper." It is available on the internet at our School's Website. (See Thoughts section) We will also print some to be found in the rounders in the lobby if you don't have access to the internet and still would like a copy. Thank you for your help in saving paper and reading Thougts for Thursday on the Web.

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